


Belief

by libraryv



Category: Cormoran Strike Series - Robert Galbraith, Strike (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-16 08:53:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29947515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/libraryv/pseuds/libraryv
Relationships: Robin Ellacott/Cormoran Strike
Comments: 23
Kudos: 63





	Belief

He’s not a man who believes in much. Tangible, hard evidence. A methodical list of facts. He can believe what his senses tell him: the loamy, first bittersweet swallow of Doom Bar after a long day. The sea-salt tang in Cornish air.

Faith, though; it requires a leap into the unknown, a release on his grasp of surety. And that’s not easy. 

Sometimes, it’s hard. When she’s tailing a mark and it’s late and the clouds have sent wet arrows of rain pelting down, and he’s pacing the office with his uneven strides, the tip of the cigarette a ruby-red flare of his own distress in the night as he inhales against the worry. He pictures the shining pink scar on her arm, he imagines her on the wet, hard ground, trapped, and his pulse is a sickening beat and she’s strong and capable and he knows all this but it’s hard, hard to let his belief in her translate into action, which in this instance, requires him to take no action at all. 

But then it’s so easy, like the liquid sunshine that frames her face as they walk together, along the pavement, easy like the way she wakes up and turns to him in the first blush of dawn, how she hitches a leg warmly over his hip, and he slides into her and she lets out that gorgeous, grateful moan that he feels deep inside him, every time. 

It’s effortless, when she picks up every quip of his, every joke, every line, every pun and double meaning; she’s a _good catch_ , she picks up what he throws and tosses it back, like her hair over her shoulder and the raise of her brows and that cheeky grin that makes him hard. 

There are times when it requires faith. When his belief in himself wavers. When they go for a walk in the park and there are families on picnics and toddlers are pointing their chubby fingers and the sweet, warm air is filled with tiny, child-sized squeals of delight and he looks over at her and the doubt creeps in. Is he enough, he wonders, and that’s when he becomes aware of his heavy, limping gait, and the extra weight he carries and the greasy takeaway dinners they eat on surveillance, bleary-eyed and exhausted, when she could be short on sleep because she’s cradling life in her arms and building a family, not watching ones get broken apart by lies and secrets that implode along fault lines that they’re exposing.

But there are times, too, when he believes with everything he has, when the physical evidence _is_ there, when his fists are slamming into the heavy give of the leather punching bag, and he can feel the muscle he’s gained back, and some of his old confidence that comes with it, when she watches him from the other side of the bag and her eyes are hungry and the gym is empty and he’s up for it, hell yes, in the literal definition of the phrase and she’s game, which surprises him, but he believes it’s perfect, because suddenly he’s got her bent over against the ropes and she’s pushing her arse up against him, and it’s slick and sweaty but holy fuck, she feels good, his taped hands with their bloodied knuckles gripping her by the hips as he drives into her, he’s giving it to her hard and she’s gasping _oh oh oh my god, Cormoran,_ and this is unbelievable, but he believes it. 

Robin is proof, if such a thing exists. She’s the discovery that he keeps on making; she’s the new definition of every emotion he can name, she’s tough and soft and she looks at him, sometimes, with eyes that reflect a heart full of her own belief, in him, in what they have, and it makes him want to build an imaginary future, she’s the reason he’s trying to cut back on the damn Benson & Hedges but she’s a drug and a quick release, all on her own, so that’s easier, too. 

He loves her, he’s in love with her, he’s loved her for a long time, he’ll love her for even longer. This is not something that he believes; this is something he knows. 

He’s not a man who believes in much. But he believes in her. He believes, absolutely, in them.


End file.
